The Exercise Club

In October 2000, after coming home from work, Buddy Williams encountered yet one more prostitute at the corner of his street and Nebraska Avenue. Normally when he came home from work he would walk his dog. This night he was fed up and decided to change his route. He walked to the corner and down Nebraska Avenue. The prostitute moved on. The next week several of his neighbors from his street walked with him. The prostitutes moved on. The third week residents from other streets, including neighborhood activists, joined him and the Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association Exercise Club was officially born. Residents usually met at the former U-Save parking lot and walked up and down Nebraska Avenue from Hillsborough to Martin Luther King. Periodically the residents walked as far south as Columbus Blvd. in Ybor Heights and as far north as the Publix in Old Seminole Heights. On occasion a few residents from Ybor Heights and Old Seminole Heights joined with the Exercise Club. Members of the North Tampa Neighborhood Watch regularly participated in the walks. In the end of December 2000, Tampa Police Department began providing an escort.

The goal of Civic Association was not to simply move the prostitutes out of the neighborhood but to eradicate the problem from the entire length of Nebraska Avenue and eventually from the city of Tampa. Meetings had been held with Tampa Police Department, Chief Judge Dennis Alvarez, State Attorney Mark Ober, and City Council Members Rose Ferlita and Bob Buckhorn to discuss dealing with the problem of prostitution. Various solutions to the problems of prostitution were presented by the residents to these agencies and officials. Eventually Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association decided a community meeting was needed. (more...)